Ireland to Obama: You know what we’d like for St. Patrick’s Day?

posted at 4:01 pm on March 17, 2014 by Ed Morrissey

Lá Phádraig sona dhaiobh to all Hot Air readers around the world, especially those in Ireland. Our friends in the Auld Country don’t really make today quite the same big deal we of Irish descent (and all you wannabes) do here in the New World, but they do appreciate the attention. You know what they’d appreciate more, though? An American ambassador, as the Taoiseach reminded Barack Obama last week:

The United States has been without an ambassador in Ireland for 15 months now, the longest period the country has not had a top diplomat in Dublin. One has to go back to 1935 and President Franklin D Roosevelt’s appointment of Alvin Mansfield Owsley as the US envoy to find a delay almost as long. Then it took 13 months. Dan Rooney, owner of the Pittsburgh Steelers and a Barack Obama supporter, was the last of 23 US ambassadors to have served in Dublin. He stood down on December 14th, 2012. The formal St Patrick’s Day celebrations at the White House passed yesterday and there was still no announcement from President Obama naming a new ambassador. Taoiseach Enda Kenny said yesterday he had raised the issue of the vacant ambassador post with President Obama during their meeting in the Oval Office. “Obviously, he is intent on dealing with it. It’s a matter exclusively for the president, and we hope it can be dealt with pretty soon,” Mr Kenny told reporters afterwards.

Quite frankly, I find this encouraging. The #Morrissey4Ireland campaign continues! Be sure to add your voices to Twitter to get me the gig. As I’ve explained before, I’m less than qualified in this administration because (a) I’ve actually been to Ireland, (b) I speak the native tongue, even if I’m terribly rusty at it now, and (c) I’ve read the State Department brief on the relationship and know the form of government Eire employs.

If you want more great news related to Irish heritage, be sure to read Nick Gillespie’s choice for the worst of the media’s St. Patrick’s Day coverage. He’s wrong, though, because Salon wrapped up that title a couple of days ago. And if you’re tempted to try some Irish step dancing, better make sure you’re really a Lord of the Dance, rather than … just a knave.

Ireland to Obama: You know what we’d like for St. Patrick’s Day?
.An American ambassador, as the Taoiseach reminded Barack Obama last week :

The United States has been without an ambassador in Ireland for 15 months now, the longest period the country has not had a top diplomat in Dublin. One has to go back to 1935 and President Franklin D Roosevelt’s appointment of Alvin Mansfield Owsley as the US envoy to find a delay almost as long. Then it took 13 months. Dan Rooney, owner of the Pittsburgh Steelers and a Barack Obama supporter, was the last of 23 US ambassadors to have served in Dublin. He stood down on December 14th, 2012. The formal St Patrick’s Day celebrations at the White House passed yesterday and there was still no announcement from President Obama naming a new ambassador. Taoiseach Enda Kenny said yesterday he had raised the issue of the vacant ambassador post with President Obama during their meeting in the Oval Office. “Obviously, he is intent on dealing with it. It’s a matter exclusively for the president, and we hope it can be dealt with pretty soon,” Mr Kenny told reporters afterwards.

If you want more great news related to Irish heritage, be sure to read Nick Gillespie’s choice for the worst of the media’s St. Patrick’s Day coverage. He’s wrong, though, because Salon wrapped up that title a couple of days ago.

Oh! I’ve got to go with any story that involves dumping vast amounts of green dye in a river or makes mention of corned beef and cabbage. They have a parade in New Orleans for St Patrick’s day that involves throwing not beads but the ingredients for Irish stew. Why people getting pelted by potato and cabbage doesn’t get more attention is beyond me.

Just to give you my Irish bona fides I’ll tell you that I have bright red hair, freckles and shuttled my daughter to countless feiseanna and oireachtasi over a period of 13 years. I am the proud mom of an open champion Irish Dancer. Now to my point. The last thing Ireland should be worried about is an ambassador from this lousy administration. They aren’t missing much.

My favorite Irish joke
A man passed by an Irish bar…..no really it could happen!

neyney on March 17, 2014 at 5:08 PM

“Why do the Irish fight amongst themselves so much?
Because they can’t find any other worthy opponent.”

I especially like this one because my wife is a redhead – from a lot of Irish redheads on her Dad’s side of the family from Georgia, and a bunch of Norwegian (Viking) redheads from her Mom’s side from Minnesota.

New York, NY, US
4h
Photo: St. Patrick’s Day parade in New York City; Mayor Bill de Blasio, other city leaders declined to march due to organizers’ policy banning gay groups – @WSJNY
see original on t.co
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New York, NY, US
23h
Guinness beer withdraws sponsorship of New York City’s St. Patrick’s day parade over anti-LGBT policies – @CNBCnow
see original on twitter.com
============================

New York, NY, US

3d
Ford tells CNBC it will continue to sponsor non-LGBT inclusive St. Patrick’s Day parade in New York City; ‘No one person, group or event reflects Ford’s views on every issue’ – @CNBCnow
see original on twitter.com
=============================

Or perhaps, just for shyts and giggles, you could have a beautiful desk welded IKEA style, from the steel infrastructure of the missile defense system installations you had pulled from Poland and Czech Republic as a subtle reminder that, as our allies, you are on your own, suckers.

I am reminded of an essay by Isaac Asimov which I tell (loosely paraphrased) whenever occasion obliges, usually in a Celtic festival of some sort.

As a college student in chemistry, he was required to memorize certain formulas and compounds, one of which was “Para-Dimethylaminobenzaldehyde” – which did not fall trippingly off the tongue at first go, so as he wandered around campus he would mutter it repeatedly, eventually noticing that it fell into a certain familiar rhythm – that of the tune known as “The Irish Washerwoman”. At that point, he added the melody, and found his confidence increasing, although his musical talent did not.

One day he had a meeting with one of the deans, whose receptionist was a lady of obvious Irish heritage. As he sat in the office, he continued his practice, mumbling the chemical mantra to the jaunty air. The receptionist listened intently for several bars, then jumped from her chair, throwing her arms heavenward, and exclaimed, “Glory be! And you know it in the original Gaelic!”

* * *
(from Wikipedia: Isaac Asimov, in a 1963 humorous essay entitled “You, too, can speak Gaelic,”,[2] reprinted in the anthology Adding a Dimension among others, traces the etymology of each component of the chemical name “para-di-methyl-amino-benz-alde-hyde” (e.g. the syllable “-benz-” ultimately derives from the Arabic lubān jāwī (لبان خاوي, “frankincense from Java”).)

BTW, the tune of IWW is remarkably similar to a Welsh jig, “Sidanen (Sedany)” — and St. Patrick was a Welshman. Just sayin’.

An addition to Bruce’s reference. Dargason/Sedany was put to the words, “The Hawthorn Tree” which is in Ritson’s Ancient Songs under Class IV, (from Edward VI to Elizabeth) as A Mery Ballet of the Hathorne Tre, to be sung to the tune of Donkin Dargeson.
…
100 Songs also says the tune in the book for the Hawthorn Tree was taken from The Dancing Master (1650-51), where it is called Dargason, or the Sedany (the Sedany being a country dance). The similarity to IWW is, indeed, unmistakable.

There’s an American pioneer song to the tune, “Starving to Death on a Government Claim”, sung by Burl Ives, which begins:
My name is Frank Bolar, an old bach’lor I am
I’m keeping old batch on an elegant plan,
You’ll find me out west in the County of Lane
Starving to death on my government claim.
My house it is built of the national soil
The walls are erected according to Hoyle,
The roof has no pitch, but is level and plane
And I never get wet till it happens to rain.

Then hurrah for Lane County, the land of the free
The home of the bedbug, mosquito and flea,
I’ll sing loud her praises and never complain
While starving to death on my government claim.